Five things for pharma marketers to know: Tuesday, March 29, 2016

1. Lawmakers petitioned the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services to reduce the cost of Xtandi, a prostate cancer drug manufactured by Medivation and Astellas Pharma. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) wrote that “an unaffordable drug is 100% ineffective.” The average wholesale price for the drug is more than $129,000 in the U.S. (Reuters)

2. Novo Nordisk began building a $1.8 billion manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina, which is meant to add 700 jobs to the area. The facility will create the active ingredients for its current and future GLP-1 and insulin treatments. (Triangle Business Journal)

3. Sanofi hired one of AstraZeneca's top scientists, Yong-Jun Liu, as its head of research. He will report to Elias Zerhouni, president of global research and development. (Reuters)

4. The FDA declined to expand the approval of Brintellix, a depression drug manufactured by Takeda and Lundbeck. An FDA advisory panel had voted 8-2 in favor of the drug's application last month. (Stat)

5. ICYMI: New York state has made e-prescribing mandatory for doctors. The measure is part of a larger initiative meant to better track prescriptions of opioid-based pain medications. (CBS)